Matthew 5:23-24 NIV
"Therefore, if
you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First
go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Who Makes Your Decisions?
The other day I was driving on the freeway and a car
was behind me in the left hand lane.
Suddenly he sped up and cut in front of me but then slowed down so that
I had to put on my brakes. I was a bit
perturbed because he could have just as easily slid behind me if he had to get
in my lane. When I found myself driving
five miles an hour slower because of the guy who had pulled in front of me, I
began to stew over it until it became an obsessing thought. Why did that guy have to be in front? Was it an “alpha dog” thing? I felt like my manhood had been stolen from
me by this one simple act of this guy getting ahead of me on the freeway. Of course my thinking about this was
irrational and of course I was being immature but in a flash, I shifted lanes,
punched the gas and broke into the lead, jumping in front of the guy who had
cut in front of me. Did I feel happy
about what I did? For a moment…for a
moment I was quite puffed up and filled with pride…and then I just felt stupid
and embarrassed and was compelled to ask God to forgive me!
Each of us has a disposition that is rooted in
Sin. Sin impacts our personality in a
wide range of ways and for some of us it means we are prone to selfishness, for
others greed, of using people for selfish ends or being easily insulted or
angered. Sin can lead to us being cold
and indifferent to the suffering we see, make lust our dominant thought
process, strip us of our compassion and honesty. Sin wrecks our true sense of self; many
despise themselves because of how Sin has affected them, others feel inadequate
and generally depressed. Sin isolates us from God and from each other and makes
our disposition self-absorbed and cuts us off from the spiritual realm. By far, the most damaging effect of Sin upon
our disposition is it makes us unconcerned about sin’s impact and makes us true
rebels against God’s Kingdom.
There is an under-appreciated work the Holy Spirit
does in us and that is He makes us aware of where we have gone wrong…how we
have veered off-course. Jesus hinted at
this in the Sermon on the Mount. "Therefore,
if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First
go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew
5:23-24 NIV) The Holy Spirit checks
us…causes us to pause and think about some way that we have been wrong. In this case it is with regard to disappointing
and angering those close to us. We see
in the New Testament numerous examples of how the Spirit of God changes the
disposition of His people by checking their behavior.
The Apostle Paul early in his life had the dangerous
linking of a violent temper, self-righteousness and the authority to wield them
as he wished. Many have bad tempers and
quite a few are self-righteous but the combination of the law and social
constraints keep them both in check usually.
Paul was not encumbered by either and so he was free to unleash his
self-righteous fury at will. Paul’s
wrath was directed at Christians and like Stalin and Hitler and Saddam Hussein
after him, he was able to let his anger determine his actions; he was given
authority to beat, imprison and kill anyone he wished. After Paul was born again and God began
working throughout his personality, his temper and self-righteousness continued
to plague him. In Acts 15:37-39 we see
their lingering power over Paul. Paul
was mad at a colleague who deserted him and Barnabas on their previous mission
trip and he refused to forgive his actions.
Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul
did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia
and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they
parted company. (NIV)
Not much later, that temper flashed again and many
would say justifiably so when Paul was being questioned by the members of the
Sanhedrin when the Roman commander asked the Jewish leaders to prove the
rightfulness of their charges against him. In the midst of the proceedings, the
Jewish High priest, who was not known to Paul, became angry with something Paul
said and ordered Paul be punched in the mouth.
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I
have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." At this the high priest Ananias ordered those
standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. (Acts 23:1-2 NIV) Instantly, Paul responded. Then Paul said to him, "God will
strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the
law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" (Acts 23:3 NIV) When Paul was told that he had just insulted
the Jewish High Priest, Paul backed off from his angry indignation. Paul
replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it
is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" (Acts
23:5 NIV)
Now a critic of Paul might argue that the Apostle
would have acted upon his anger if he had the power to do so. What checked his temper was the force behind
the Sanhedrin. Yet, Paul was not
thinking of attacking the High Priest physically, his temper only took him as
far as the insult, a similar one to what Jesus used when confronting the
Pharisees. When Paul realized that he
was angry with the High Priest, the Holy Spirit through the scripture checked
him and he immediately backed off his temper. There is a moment when a window
opens and God’s light can either come into us and fill us with His presence or
we let the window close and nothing of God touches us. It is when the check of
God reaches our mind and we choose to heed it or ignore it that we stand on the
edge of receiving a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in us or lose that instant of
intimacy with God.
The Bible often points back to the critical moment
when the people of God had to decide if they were going to trust God with their
lives and enter the Promised Land or close the door to Him and silence God’s
voice in them. They decided to go it on
their own without God. Of course they
never would have said they were closing themselves off to God. The Hebrews were much too religious for
that. As far as they were concerned,
they were wisely not putting themselves or their families at risk. They were still open to the Lord working with
them. He could talk to them later if He
wished…that was acceptable to them. But
God doesn’t work that way something serious and terrible happened when they
refused to let the check of God have its way with them. So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried
me and for forty years saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts
are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They
shall never enter my rest.'" (Hebrews 3:7-11 NIV)
The check of God is the door that opens the way for
us to enter our Lord’s rest. “Rest” in
Scripture is not some sort of spiritual or even physical “lying around”. It is reaching the sweet spot with Christ
where we are secure in Him and despite all the chaos around us, we are at peace
because we have obeyed the check of God.
Let’s examine a very practical example of this. In Acts 16 we are told that Paul and his
fellow missionaries did not go into the province of Asia because the Holy
Spirit checked them. It is not that they
didn’t really want to go and preach in Asia, but the Holy Spirit somehow made
it clear to them not to go into the Roman province of Asia. Paul and his companions traveled
throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy
Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. (Acts 16:6 NIV) Later, Paul did go into Asia when the Holy
Spirit was no longer checking him. He
(Paul) sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he
stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. (Acts 19:22 NIV) In both situations God’s peace was with Paul
and his companions because they were aligned with God.
Let’s now look at the Holy Spirit check from a
different angle. The Spirit can also check us to do something. "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I
am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy
Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. (Acts 20:22-23 NIV) So Paul was directed somehow, and we do not
know how, but somehow by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. In this check of the Holy Spirit, he also was
cautioned about what he would encounter there.
Later, a prophet from Judea traveled up to meet Paul in Caesarea and
confirmed what the Spirit had already told Paul. After we had been there a number of days,
a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with
it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem
will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" (Acts 21:10-11 NIV) When the people of the church heard this
warning they literally wept and begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem; they loved
him so much. But Paul was as calm and
peaceful as a daisy in the springtime sun.
That is how it is when we let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way
with us. No matter what He might tell us,
we are settled and unperturbed when in faith we obediently let the check of the
Holy Spirit have its way in us.
It cannot be said how the check of God will come to
you. It may be through a dream, or a
conversation, a moment of reflection while driving in the car or most likely a
quiet moment while reading the Bible but the Holy Spirit will make known to you
something that aligns perfectly with Scripture and it is going to be totally up
to you how you respond to the check and then what happens next is in God’s
hand. You will have His rest like Israel
could have had if you let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way with you…or
you could be brought into turmoil by turning away. No one is more peaceful and content than the
Christian who is letting the Holy Spirit have His way in his or her life but
the converse is also true. No one is
more miserable than the Christian fighting the prompt of God and turning aside
when the Holy Spirit has made something clear.
Our Lord’s promise to you could not be any clearer. You will keep in perfect peace him whose
mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3 NIV) It is in your hands whether you have our
Lord’s perfect peace at any moment. With
steely resolve, decide you will do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do and
God’s peace will carry you through every twist and turn of your day.
